Reviews

On his sophomore stand-up disc, Mike Birbiglia admits he's not much of a political comedian. And that's probably a good thing. It seems he's got too many smiles in him to effectively execute a string of bitter, scathing tirades on the country's current political climate.
But...

Over the years, Jim Gaffigan has used three major themes in his stand-up act: food, his appearance and what he describes as the “inner voice." These tools and the way in which Gaffigan fashions jokes from them have made him one of the nation's most popular stand-up comedians,...

Robert Hawkins dives right into this 45-minute album without any introduction: “Today is seven months, 10 days, no cigarettes for me." The crowd applauds his accomplishment, and Hawkins admits to appreciating the congratulations. But he feels "guilty because you don't know...

At the start of Tickets Still Available, Marc Maron opines about how he's tired of comedy albums that are simply funny, that there should exist at least one that makes listeners uncomfortable and sad. Midway through the hour-long disc, you realize he was only half...

No matter how anti-status quo we consider typical alternative comics today, the truth is they rarely turn on their audience so much that they make the customers cringe or squirm in their seats. Although listeners can't see the audience at the Skyline Comedy Club in Appleton,...

There are three possible conclusions one can render about Zach Galifianakis by the end of Look Who It Isn't : Galifianakis is egomaniacal to the point of dragging us through his successful career; Galifianakis, as he writes on the DVD's back cover, really does think failure is...

In an effort to convince the audience that they are really just talking to friends, not performing a string of premeditated jokes, some comics stock their sets with bits based on believable premises. The idea is that whether these bits are pure fiction, 100 percent true or a...

Judging from the colossal comic lineup, everyone listening to Invite Them Up should keep an EKG machine and home defibrillator nearby to monitor and restart their hearts after having subjected themselves to more than three hours of convulsion-inducing hilarity.
Luckily, though,...

By Keith Hernandez
For years, Aries Spears used his preternatural ability to imitate celebrities on Fox's Mad TV. From Michael Jackson to Jesse Jackson, Spears delivers amazingly deft impersonations of some of America's most incendiary stars. So it's no surprise that the most...